Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

directed by Terry Gilliam

with: Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro

We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not just a movie about Hunter S. Thompson's gift to the world, Gonzo journalism, nor it is a movie about his drug experiences with his attorney; this movie is a drug itself. Thanks to the sometimes distorted imagery and great acting by Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, director Terry Gilliam, with a well-thought-out pace, induces the viewer into a drug-like experience with a precise evolution. Almost like ether, it makes you lose balance. Balance about life's perception and limits.

"The edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over" Hunter S. Thompson

Approach with caution.

Rating: 7.5/10